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Facing Autism in New Brunswick
For Conor There Is Fun And Then There Is Circle Place Fun
Conor had a great day trail walking with Dad this morning but his favorite part or our hike came when we visited the Circle Place; the Lawrence Amphitheatre. Conor loves to play balancing games on the curved cement seating rings of the amphitheatre. We have an early spring. Whether it...
Absolutely Awesome in Fredericton Today
Yesterday was a great day. Today though was awesome. Being Saturday I was able to get out for a couple of good walks. Conor got out too; walking and playing in the back yard. . autism ...
Trails Start to Open in Fredericton on a Beautiful, Almost Spring, Day
It was a beautiful blue sky, "almost spring", day in Fredericton today. The trails are starting to open up for walking and I had to take the afternoon off and enjoy the outdoors. Conor wasn't keen to do any trail walking today but I am going to push him...
Autism Jabberwocky Questions Michelle Dawson's Understanding of Evidence Based Medicine Concept
Autism Jabberwocky one of the best, and best written, autism blogs on the internet features an excellent commentary which highlights an apparent lack of understanding by anti-ABA ideologue Michelle Dawson of the concept of evidence based medicine. As explained by MJ at Autism Jabberwocky in Michelle Dawson Writes A Letter....
Autism Not a Gift for South Carolina Boy Who Jumped to His Death from a Moving Ambulance
"Shelley Hodge said nobody believed her when she protested her 16-year-old son’s release from a state psychiatric hospital, warning that he could hurt himself or someone else. That teen, Ryan Emory of Greenville, was being driven back to the same hospital Sunday when he loosened a gurney’s straps and jumped...
Autism Vaccine Myth Busting: Thimerosal Is Still Used In Vaccines
One of the myths pushed in the mainstream media is that thimerosal, the mercury preservative used in vaccines, has been removed from vaccines. That position simply is not true. The recent H1N1 panic showed that health authorities and pharmaceuticals still push vaccines containing thimerosal when it suits them. The Ipswich Massachusetts...
Left Brain/Right Brain
Another hoax from Age of Autism
Another hoax at Age of Autism Age of Autism has never been noted for accuracy or honesty, except in terms of lack thereof. Still, it has not been their style to post completely fabricated material. As a rule, there is just enough factual basis in their material to make...
Disability Coalition applauds passage of Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion Legislation
There is a bill in congress to ban seclusion and restraints in schools. It has been passed by the House (as bill 4247)and will go on to the Senate and, hopefully, the President. Below is a press release from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN). Disability Coalition applauds passage of...
Lawsuit against alternative medical practitioners Usman and Rossignal
A lawsuit has been filed in Chicago claiming that a child has been harmed by the treatments prescribed by Dr. Dan Rossignol and Dr. Anju Usman. This is being reported in a story, Father of 7-year-old autistic boy says treatment harmed son. (also now on the Chicago Tribune’s website) Doctor’s Data has...
That’s the title of an article at Smithsonian.com. The introduction spells out one of the dilemmas that face skeptics to the “vaccines cause autism” story: It’s rare in science and science writing to make definitive statements, particularly about causation. We like to add what I call “wishy washy” words like...
14 Monkeys 3: Mark Blaxill Swings and Misses for Wakefield Paper
The implosion of Andrew Wakefield’s career and the desperate efforts of groups like Age of Autism to reverse it has continued apace this week with the latest contribution by Mark Blaxill, “Joan Cranmer’s Fateful Decision and the Suppression of Autism Science”. Here, he takes another stab at presenting Andrew...
UK Advertising Standards Authority Rules on Options Institute
The Kaufmans ran an Ad in the regional press over here which read: AUTISM RECOVERY 2 Hours to change your child’s life With American Autism expert Raun K. Kaufman, himself fully recovered from Autism. Free Public Lectures ASA recieved 2 complaints on the adverts (no, neither were me) and investigated based on...
from here to there and back
A haircut, ice cream and TV dinners
Sometimes I think my greatest challenge as a mother is to not take the lows—the hard times, the struggles—so personally. And yet, it’s so easy to fall into that place where every setback becomes my own personal failure. I’m just that kind of a mom. The kind who has to push...
Filed under: life-stuff ...
Yesterday I watched an amazing video clip of Temple Grandin. Ms. Grandin is an author, speaker and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Oh, yes, and she has autism. (If you haven’t seen the clip, the link is making the rounds on nearly every social networking site in...
I spent an hour or so yesterday reading the online text of Chapter 16 in my son’s third grade science book. I downloaded the study guide and made sure I knew the difference between a lever and a wedge, a pulley and a screw. Turns out simple machines are, in...
Mountains or clouds or the empty night sky
I sat with him at 3 a.m. this morning, the door to the bathroom closed, inhaling warm steam from the shower. The croup has haunted our winter nights for as long as I can remember, but it’s been a long long time since I suggested the old remedy of steam...
I am working my way through the final chapters and it feels good to be able, finally, to see the end, to have a roadmap and a destination, to know how and where Emma will find her peace. The revisions, the rewrites, the immeasurable changes that have shifted the second half...
Autism's Edges
Many of us who blog about parenting children on or near the autism spectrum do so under internet pseudonyms, blog-o-nyms that provide a thin veil of privacy for ourselves and our families. I have very mixed feelings about blogging under a nom-de-net.At one level, I would like everyone I know...
Last month Sweet M was invited to the Bat Mitzvah of one of her schoolmates. Bat Mitzvahs can be notably gala affairs as the Jewish tradition is especially excellent at honoring the passage of their young people into early adulthood.This particular celebration promised to be an exceptionally special evening since...
Gravity Pulls at Autism's Edges
Over here at Autism's Edges we're delighted to see that Gravity Pulls You In, the extraordinary anthology of writing by parents of kids on the spectrum edited by Kyra Andersen (thismom.com) and Vicki Forman (vickiforman.com), will be out this month (and is now available for pre-orders at Amazon)."Notes from Autism's...
Change comes fast and slow at Autism's Edges, which might also be known as PDD-NOS-Ville, or Expressive-Receptive Language Disorder Central. Sometimes it seems that things change overnight, and other times it seems to be an endless slog through language development, social skills faux pas, and battles for a free and...
Just two weeks back you could have found me afloat in a pool that sported a water slide shooting out from a replica of the Mayflower and a jacuzzi embedded in a simulated Plymouth Rock.Yes, I was in Plymouth, Massachusetts, home of those pilgrims whose fall feast has morphed into...
Even though Sweet M's most recent drawings have not show her embedded in a community as she was last year, one of last week's shows her surrounded by hearts. You've gotta love this girl, and apparently plenty of people do. Art may be graded, but it seems hearts are...
LBnuke
Temple Grandin on AWN Radio Tomorrow
Temple Grandin will be on the AWN Radio show tomorrow morning to give the Autism Women’s Network her first exclusive interview following the Premiere of HBO’s Original Movie which premiered a few hours ago. Radio show link is: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/autism-womens-network/2010/02/07/temple-grandin-gives-awn-first-interview-re-premie Interview time: Feb 7th, 2010 at 9am PST – 10am MST – 11am CST– 12pm...
I have been at the She’s Geeky conference this weekend at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Got to go on a tour of the museum today. There are lots of old computers, some restorations, handheld video games, abaci, calculators, adding machines, and software. The conference has been very fun. It is...
Today I am 43 and having an awesome birthday. Last night K took me to see Fiddler on the Roof with Harvey Fierstein at the Golden Gate Theater in SF. It was awesome! I think it is possible that he was born to play Tevye. Perfect. I was really wishing...
After 3 months of complete immersion, the Autism Women’s Network site is live and open to the public. I am still adding features and fixing the occasional bug here and there, but for the most part, it is done. Building this site has been an amazing experience for me. I am...
Video: Autism Reality by Alex Plank
Autism Reality is a 10 minute documentary film about autism by Alex Plank. The film features interviews with Dr. Temple Grandin, Alex himself, and a handful of others including Alex’s parents. This film shows a perspective not often seen in autism media by portraying autism as a reality which is neither...
Sometimes it is hard to be an aspie. I am very lucky because no matter how hard things get sometimes, I have people who can, and do, help me out. If it weren’t for those people, especially my family and Karen, I really don’t what my life would be like...
Spectrum Siblings
A few weeks ago, the autism center by me began to run a music therapy session. Because Larry is a natural dancer with an innate sense of rhythm, it seemed an obvious choice. But the first day we arrived, I wasn’t so sure. A couple of potential issues caught my eye...
The snowstorm has been playing crazy games with my schedules, so things have been quite hectic recently. Add to this my job teaching ESL to Chinese exchange students starting for the semester and my independent study animals arriving, and I haven’t really had time to muse and post. So here’s...
Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
Lawrence has been having an amazing month. He’s talkative and smiley. He’s making progress on his eating and speaking goals, has surpassed his compliance goals, and is down to one melt-down a week. At the supermarket he is pointing out colors and numbers as if he knew them all his...
One of the most fascinating effects of autism is its multivariate effects on individuals. Characteristics of autism can fall into three broad categories: behavioral, cognitive, and physical. Behavioral attributes like stimming, eye-contact avoidance, etc. tend to attract the most attention, and may thus be seen as the most salient features....
One of the key principles of Behavioral Modification (or ABA) is the need for reinforcers specific to the individual you are working with. Some things which are appealing and reinforcing to some people will be aversive to others and vice versa. Typical reinforcers for first-graders like Larry would be candy, stickers,...
As I’ve mentioned, Larry has been very talkative recently. For the most part he is babbling, responding to prompts, and echoing language that isn’t appropriate to the situation. These are all useful steps toward reaching full communication, so we reinforce and praise as appropriate. But twice this week, Larry has...
Morgan Autism Center
Newsweek magazine recently published a very provocative article on antidepressants based on research in The Journal of the American Medical Association in January - www.newsweek.com/id/232781. That research presented evidence indicating that popular antidepressants are no more effective than a placebo, with the strong suggestion that it is the patient's own...
Last week the British General Medical Council (GMC) retracted the Lancet paper by Andrew Wakefield, M.D. that had stated there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/28/andrew-wakefield-mmr-vaccineAccording to the GMC, Wakefield's research had been done unethically and for profit, and this was the reason for the retraction,...
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned more than half a century of decisions on restricting corporate and union financing of election campaign contributions, essentially opening the floodgates for special interests to pour money into campaigns to persuade officials to vote their way or eliminate those who don't comply. Equating...
As I write this, we are looking at a week of incessant rain; stormy, windy, can't-play-outside kind of weather. 'Heads-up, 7-up' doesn't quite cut it when we're trying to entertain a school full of students with autism and other neurological challenges!! But, wait - let's think of this as an...
As this decade draws to a close, I can't say I'm particularly sorry to see it end. What with 9/11, Enron, unnecessary wars, state and federal budget fiascos, the Wall Street mess, obscene executive compensations, political inertia, and terrorism lurking around every bend, I say good riddance to a miserable...
Holidays are the time we want to be with our families, even when it involves the trials of travel, traffic delays, and of course, the turkey. (If people really love turkey so much, why don't we eat it more often? I think maybe its symbolic of the holidays - if...
Square 8
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Perseveration in the Workplace
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Late Interventions: Contributions from Readers
I appreciate all of the contributions that are coming in. I will post more here as I get them done. Please understand that I will not be posting captions which conflict with the intention of this campaign (respect and full inclusion for all autistic people). If I...
Seriously. Michael John Carley says he is "going to have a very hard time calling [him]self autistic," since some others with the same label may wear adult diapers and head-restraining devices. "Hard to swallow," Mr. Carley? What I find difficult to digest is the idea that there are people out...
Autistic adult readers of Asperger Square 8 are invited to join this campaign. Send me your photo and the name of an "intervention" that has helped or might help you, and I will add it to mine. Please send only your own photo, or one you have been given permission...
She will never have friends. She won’t fall in love. She will never be able to live on her own. She won’t go to college. She won’t get a job. She will never fit in with the others. She won’t be able to travel. She’ll never fulfill her potential. She...
The Karianna Spectrum
Last May, my then-second-grader took his first STAR test. And then this autumn he took the OLSAT. He's also taken some other assessment tests here and there, and one recent exam prompted the teacher to say she didn't believe the results because so many of her otherwise high-achieving students seemed...
The start of last week was tough. It was really tough. Lots of work to do, lots of "extracurricular" hassle, and in general just a tiring time. (Plus it was raining - great for our drought, not great for the rapidly growing weeds in our too-fertile soil or for very...
It has been rainy out. So rainy that if I didn't have a 10k on Saturday, I'd probably not consider running in the wet weather. If I hadn't already signed up for the race, I'd probably not. But I figured this would happen, so planned ahead. Presenting - Project 2010k. This year...
Splig forgot his shoes. Let's go home to retrieve them! Construction delay. Why was I the van chosen for such a privilege to lead up the line? STOP sign to stop me, long line of traffic behind. Let's just move this pole... Ten minutes later, finally back at our house, now where are the shoes? Splig seems sad but smug. He got to...
You know whose dress this is, don't you? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] ...
Thursday afternoon the Cat asked me, "Are those chips okay?" and I had no idea what he meant. "You know, I figured the cheese wouldn't be okay, but I ate the crackers that came with them." he continued. It wasn't until I emptied the boys' backpacks that I saw what happened:...
Have a Heart of Fire; Have a Heart of Gold
Alexandre Bilodeau's brother has cerebral palsy!Let's get out our bingo cards, kids!Always smiling: BING!Determination: BING!Doctors said he'd never walk: BING!If you put your mind to it, you can do anything: BING!And, for the win: INSPIRATIONAL!!! THREE TIMES!! BING BING BING BING BING!!!!!My husband asked me to hustle into the living...
Not as surprised as my icon looks
This is what comes from an industry increasingly populated by very young adults with no kids:McDonald's Ad:Two parents at McDonald's buy a happy mean for their roughly 9-year-old kid. A race ensues to see who can get to their apartment first to give it to him and get the credit.Racing...
Thanks so much to codeman38 for improving this, and for providing a .pdf! We've updated it with one more phrase to incorporate deafness. We can all have a riproaring time fighting about whether or not deafness is a disability in the comments!And, if you want a .pdf to print:http://copleywoods.com/disabilitybingo2.pdfText in...
For my friends who think I'm overreacting to the insult "retard"
Nice little article about it:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/14/AR2010021402893.htmlETA: AWESOME, DETAILED blog post about it that really digs in and calls people on their privilege:http://fiction-theory.livejournal.com/172403.html...
PLUCKY CRIPPLES DON'T LET LACK OF BINGO CARD STOP THEM
I asked for help and you delivered! Here's the final disability bingo card for reporters! Folks seemed like they wanted one for Stuff People Say To You, so I might tackle that one next. Please use this all you want; if you want to credit someone please don't. I did...
Is it now going to become some edgy leftist thing to call people "retards?"I don't like it....
Janice Ellen Wright's Blogs
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A blog created to display positive, inspiring, loving, thoughtful, witty, funny, and creative content, from a team of authors, to brighten your day and to make this earth a more beautiful place to live....
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Autism & Public School: My Experience
My son has high-functioning autism and attends an experimental public school program in New York City for children on this end of the autism scale (as in, Aspergers and high-functioning PDD). It is known as the NEST program, all caps although NEST is not an acronym. This is my attempt to...
Stimeyland
A while back I reviewed a kids' magazine called Tessy and Tab. The newest issue came in the mail today. It was about drawing with sidewalk chalk. And I noticed a little something on Tab.See any similarities between Tab the kangaroo and Quinn?That's right. The amazing people at Tessy and...
Germy Food Made With Lots of Love
Yesterday was the annual "I Love You Lunch" for Quinn's preschool class. Generally this lunch comes closer to Valentine's Day, but what with Snowmageddon and all, it was postponed. This lunch is, in fact, the whole reason for the field trip to the grocery store. Theoretically the kids buy the...
I'm All Over the Internet, But a Mention in an Honest-to-God Print Newspaper Gives Me Chills
It looks just like any other Washington Times page, doesn't it?But wait! Upon closer study you may notice that my byline is there. In an ad. In a major newspaper. That's right. I'm being advertised right under a giant map of the United States. In fact, my little square is...
Yep. She's Babbling About Field Trips Again.
There was a year when Sam and Jack were both in preschool and Quinn was but a tiny child that was pretty tough on me. Co-oping in two preschool classes, plus doing the required backup shifts for kids that used the preschool nursery were a killer.Not to mention that between...
I got some excellent comments on my last post about Jack being described in a developmental pediatrician report as "adorable." It's so nice to have a doctor take the time to drop a really wonderful compliment into a report, especially considering that these reports often mostly chronicle our children's struggles.What...
We got our report in the mail today from the Kennedy Krieger developmental pediatrician that I took Jack to see in December. And it's not like we weren't expecting what she wrote, but it's one thing to think it and quite another to see it in black and white:"Jackson presented...
AspieWeb.net
iPhone and iPod Touch Augmentive Communication
There is a great new application out for the iPhone and iPod touch that gives you great augmentative communication software right in the palm of your hand. Its called Proloquo2Go. Proloquo2Go is available from the iTunes application store for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It makes the iPhone and...
HELP: I Love A Man With Aspergers
Do you love a man or woman with Aspergers or Autism? Well there are now support groups online available to you. The Global and Regional Aspergers Syndrome partnership has several online support groups including a new one for normal people who date people on the Autism Spectrum. Now you can...
Here is a list of things I stole from Dawson McCallister on how to help a suicidal friend. Suicide is quite common amongst people with Aspergers Syndrome likely due to the Social Awkwardness that accompanies Aspergers Syndrome. Its important to be there for those that are suicidal, and many people...
I’m having to face something that I may do not like, I’m always going to be the social equivalent of a two year old. I’ll never be able to socialize like other people with disabilities and normal people do, because I just will never understand it. It seems that many...
Temple Grandin, a prominent animal rights activist that Kate first told me about also has autism. Shes the professor of Animal Science at Colorado University. Grandin talks about how if you eliminate people on the Autism Spectrum in today’s world you would eliminate many of the brilliant minds in Silicon...
Dept of Justice to Investigate Rotenberg Center
The Judge Rotenberg Center is a school in which they teach various people with disabilities. They use extreme methods of discipline including electric shocks…. yes I said electric shocks. The US Department of Justice in now investigating the school. According to the complaint received by the Justice Department: While there are...
Susan's Blog
How we made the cake: See my Tabblo>...
Funny how life works. I spent the morning a bit of a wreck from a late night out last night. I was weepy and self-destructive in my thoughts. I did some basic stuff, like cleaning my car and changing the beds, just to feel like a useful...
Fighting for the Most Vulnerable
It seems like a wonderful gift to those of us celebrating "Spread the Word to End the R-Word" Day that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has restored residential services for 315 people under the aegis of the Department of Developmental Services (formerly known as the Department of Mental Retardation). DDS...
Fantastic. Perfect for March 3d! And kudos to my buddy Tim Shriver as idealistic as they come, who produced The Ringer a few years ago. Here are some clips, a propos to tomorrow's Spread the Word to End the Word international event. Tomorrow, be aware and...
Here is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of The Autism Mom's Survival Guide (for Dads, too!). Chapter 5 is called, "Improving Our Love Lives...Yes, That's Important, Too!"How do two people who are so many things to eachother (friend, partner, diaper changer, breadwinner, breadbaker, autism teammate) switch gears and go...
An Extra Helping of Tsuris on Your Plate
When Nat was 7, he suddenly stopped sleeping through the night. It is an old story already, mine and so many others, of how our lives felt crushed underneath exhaustion without end and the fear that this would never get better. It is old but sharp and terrifying,...
Send Chocolate
Image via WikipediaI am starting to feel the need for a dog again. I have tried to resist, we all have. But the pull is getting stronger. I keep seeing pictures and jonesing. Last night, we were watching Pit Boss, about dogs. And when the urge became too strong,...
You're small fry, stop baiting your mom
I think I'm a pretty good mom. I don't beat my children, and I give them dessert once in a while. I work hard to be painstakingly fair. I let my oldest daughter borrow my shoes. I take my son to the mall to buy a used...
Another sign of the coming Apocalypse
Anthony Bourdain, cynical, sour and absolutely rough-around-the-edges sexy host of No Reservations, his anything-but-tourist foodie travel show that is my guilty pleasure (with no less than TWELVE episodes currently backed up on the DVR, thankuverymuch)And..he's on drugs ...Yo Gabba Gabba?? wait...isn't that the same thing?? Look at it. LOOK. AT. IT....
I am having a torrid affair. I see him almost every day, God, but he is sexy as hell. And I love the way he sees things. Today, we went for a walk in Fullerton. I held him, and cradling him tightly to my chest, brought him close. We...
How NOT to make an impression at the Ritz
Sometimes I think I'm just not a very good grown up. In fact, maybe I am not a grown up at all. You've heard "You can dress me up, you just can't take me out?" That was for me. Oh, no, you say...you have it together, so...
On Car Bingo, Marriage and Penguins
With Valentine's Day behind us, I've had time to reflect a little on my relationship with my husband. What keeps two people still so much in love after twenty years? I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I know what is working for us. Of course, we are...